Jo Cosme
Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!
“The world’s oldest colony” exists as a paradox: a territory disadvantaged by U.S. policies, serving as a tropical escape for the privileged.
- March 7 - 28, 2024
- Opening: Thursday, March 7, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Jo Cosme challenges widespread perceptions of Borikén, colonially known as Puerto Rico, as a Caribbean paradise against the capitalist and neocolonial realities native Boricuas have endured for over a century.
Welcome to Paradise is an immersive multimedia installation featuring artworks that juxtapose the opulence enjoyed by some with the stark living conditions of others: lenticular photos contrasting housing inequities, a Discover Puerto Rico tourism campaign sign hand-stitched from hurricane tarps, a ten-foot inflatable Vejigante mask–a display of cultural identity–and a virtual reality simulation set on the beach, all paired with subversive messaging.
Today, almost half of the island’s residents live below the poverty line, surpassing mainland rates by more than three times, and the situation is worsening, as the population continues to decline. Cosme exposes the complexities confronting native Boricuas–whether to persist in impoverished conditions, catering to tourists, settlers, and wealthy landowners, or face displacement.
She says, “Showing this project in the continental U.S. serves as an educational experience to raise awareness and as a call to action against imperialism. My goal is to have North American audiences contemplate what it’s like to be a native inhabitant of the places they vacation and take land from.”
This project was generously funded by a 4Culture Arts Project grant, Artist Trust, Northwest Film Forum, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Robert B. McMillen Foundation.
About the Artist
Jo Cosme is a Native Boricua and award-winning multimedia artist who was displaced from Borikén to Seattle one year after Hurricane María. Her shock over North Americans’ ignorance of the archipelago inspired her to create works that provoke reflections on U.S. imperialism, disaster capitalism, and neocolonialism in her homeland. Cosme holds a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico’s School of Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Museo de las Américas (PR), the Whatcom Museum, Out of Sight, Photographic Center Northwest, Dab Art Gallery (Los Angeles), and Galerie Rivoli 59 (Paris) among other venues. In 2021, she was granted the Puerto Rican Artist Fellowship at MASS MoCA’s A4A Residency, followed by Northwest Film Forum’s Collective Power Fund grant and Artist Trust’s GAP grant in 2022. Most recently, Cosme was awarded Pratt Fine Arts Center’s Bernie Funk Artist Scholarship, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture’s City Artist grant, McMillen Foundation’s 2023 Fellowship, and was named one of 4Culture’s 2023 Arc Fellows. She is currently participating in Inscape’s AiR program and plans to attend Anderson Ranch in the fall.